Lord of the Rings’ Mount Doom is really New Zealand's Mount Ngauruhoe. It's a stratovolcano - many small eruptions of ash and lava too thick to flow very far added up to form the volcano over 2500 years.

It's erupted 60 times since 1839 but luckily not during filming!

Lord of the Rings stratovolcano

Mount Doom in The Lord of the Rings and in Real Life

Former mines and quarries are sometimes used as film sets. For example, Helms Deep in Lord of the Rings was shot in the Dry Creek aggregate quarry in New Zealand.

Nova Scotia needs 10-15 million tons of new aggregate each year to build and maintain our infrastructure.

Dry Creek New Zealand

Helms Deep in real life is Dry Creek in New Zealand.